There's one line in the movie where Erik says to Xavier "nobody cares" for his (Xavier) stories. It's a line that I completely agree, although it applies to all the characters in the movie. They're very one-dimensional and it doesn't help that the story is very plain and uninteresting. "Dark Phoenix" was an attempt to do justice to the storyline of Jean Grey after they did a miserable job with "The Last Stand"; well, it was another failure.
The only character of interest was Jean Grey, after all it is her movie. Sophie Turner is a wonderful actress and she gave a wonderful performance, given the material handed to her. Aside from her, the cast was pretty much underused. "Dark Phoenix" has an ensemble of very talented actors and actresses with McAvoy, Fassbender, Chastain and others but they are very underused. An actress of Jessica Chastain's caliber is confined to a character who only has one expression, which is such a shame.
The script does not have any impactful moments. I understand that the X-Men movies all have the difficulty of having to juggle multiple characters, but the attempt here is just bad. The conversations the characters have are just bare and empty, with no emotional weight. Remember the scene in "Days of Future Past" where Erik confronts Xavier in the airplane while he crumples the airplane. The tension. The weight of the story. None of that here. To add to that, I find the decisions taken by the characters to be very illogical at times, and sometimes very out of character, rendering them to be one-dimensional and lacking in any depth.
The action sequences are kind of cool, although overly stuffed with visual effects. We get to see all the mutants working with all their powers. But they feel empty and devoid of tension. The villains here are some alien shapeshifting race who cannot replicate emotions, so ultimately are just stone-faced super-powered creatures with a vague set of abilities. Some of them die from bullets but some can withstand them? I feel they are an attempt to replicate the Sentinels from "Days of Future Past", where they have a horde of unstoppable enemies. However, I barely know what these aliens are, where they come from, what they're capable of, which is unlike the Sentinels, where I know how they were created, their strengths, their capabilities, and just how threatening and unstoppable they are. The odds are immensely against the X-Men and each action sequence displayed on screen as gripping. The same cannot be said here.
Ultimately, "Dark Phoenix" is an anticlimactic ending to the X-Men saga. To be honest, it's only the ending because of the Disney-Fox merger, but its status as whether it's the real ending or not doesn't change just how disappointing the movie is. We had "Days of Future Past", "Logan", "Deadpool" and "Deadpool 2", movies in the X-Men universe that were amazing, but unfortunately "Dark Phoenix" couldn't continue the streak.
The only character of interest was Jean Grey, after all it is her movie. Sophie Turner is a wonderful actress and she gave a wonderful performance, given the material handed to her. Aside from her, the cast was pretty much underused. "Dark Phoenix" has an ensemble of very talented actors and actresses with McAvoy, Fassbender, Chastain and others but they are very underused. An actress of Jessica Chastain's caliber is confined to a character who only has one expression, which is such a shame.
The script does not have any impactful moments. I understand that the X-Men movies all have the difficulty of having to juggle multiple characters, but the attempt here is just bad. The conversations the characters have are just bare and empty, with no emotional weight. Remember the scene in "Days of Future Past" where Erik confronts Xavier in the airplane while he crumples the airplane. The tension. The weight of the story. None of that here. To add to that, I find the decisions taken by the characters to be very illogical at times, and sometimes very out of character, rendering them to be one-dimensional and lacking in any depth.
The action sequences are kind of cool, although overly stuffed with visual effects. We get to see all the mutants working with all their powers. But they feel empty and devoid of tension. The villains here are some alien shapeshifting race who cannot replicate emotions, so ultimately are just stone-faced super-powered creatures with a vague set of abilities. Some of them die from bullets but some can withstand them? I feel they are an attempt to replicate the Sentinels from "Days of Future Past", where they have a horde of unstoppable enemies. However, I barely know what these aliens are, where they come from, what they're capable of, which is unlike the Sentinels, where I know how they were created, their strengths, their capabilities, and just how threatening and unstoppable they are. The odds are immensely against the X-Men and each action sequence displayed on screen as gripping. The same cannot be said here.
Ultimately, "Dark Phoenix" is an anticlimactic ending to the X-Men saga. To be honest, it's only the ending because of the Disney-Fox merger, but its status as whether it's the real ending or not doesn't change just how disappointing the movie is. We had "Days of Future Past", "Logan", "Deadpool" and "Deadpool 2", movies in the X-Men universe that were amazing, but unfortunately "Dark Phoenix" couldn't continue the streak.